TDE UPDATE: I’m back, and here’s why I was gone…

December 21, 2017 at 11:26 am

I dont know how to start here, so I’ll copy-paste most of what I said for my patrons. However, before that, I want to address something else as well. As you know, my releases before this break were becoming sporadic and inconsistent timing. I said it was my hectic schedule at school, but there was another main reason for that.

Most of you at Wuxiaworld might not know about it, but things had been pretty tough for me nearly a year ago. I made a post about it on reddit here: https://www.reddit.com/r/noveltranslations/comments/5sfc71/living_under_terrorism_and_the_reason_for_long/

On New Year’s eve, exactly when the clock struck 12 on that night, a mass shooting by a psycho at a club killed one of my friends. As December was drawing closer and closer, my thoughts kept returning back there, how his family was doing, what he’d be doing now, and generally just stuck in those past memories and feeling out of place as everyone prepared for the holidays.

And with distraction, I continued on with my hectic classes, midterms and finishing TDE chapters. However, it looks like this year won’t leave me alone as well. One evening, I get a call from my sister saying something was urgent and to check one of my friend’s facebook profile. I guess even she didnt know how to tell me this news over the phone.

Four of my friends studying abroad were in a car accident.

One of them was instantly dead just by the sheer blunt force of the collision against the other car, and she was gone. Two of the others were flung out the windows, with their bodies mangled but still signs of life in them. The driver miraculously survived with few injuries. As the two who were flung were gasping for breath, help on the scene arrived and they were immediately taken to the nearest hospital. It was not looking good for either of them. I’ll not go into the details, but not only were their bones and ribs fractured, their internal organs were in critical condition. After many hours, the doctors couldnt save one of them and she died in the hospital. The remaining friend still had hope, but his family was not well off so his mother and family couldnt afford the plane tickets to visit their son at a foreign country. He and the others were all students and were there as exchange students.

So, the rest of us started a gofundme for their family so at least his mother could be with him and also to cover some of the medical expenses. During this whole time, I immediately applied for an emergency visa and to visit my friend. I was there for a while. I don’t want to talk much about what happened there, but it crushed me to see the parents and families of my friends who passed away. It choked me as it was something I had seen too much around me. While I was there, I couldnt visit my other friend as he was still in critical condition. Part of his spine was compromised and his lungs were not functioning properly. After a few days, he woke up and I said my first words to him. Now, what I will say after this will be deleted in 24 hours as I dont want it to stay on the internet: [deleted]. Hearing that shook me. It makes me uncomfortable talking about what happened after that in detail here so publically, but I did talk about what happened on my patreon post and preventing him from going down that path.

It’s hard to talk about personal matters on the internet, and I wouldnt have revealed it to the patrons if not for the fact that they support me financially and I have an obligation to let them know exactly why I had to stay there for this long. This accident was covered by the news and the woman who was in the opposing car was arrested by the police for manslaughter. The entire university was very supportive during this entire ordeal as it was a great shock to the entire community.

I’ll leave matters at that, and if you want to know more about this or read in more detail about the accident, then message me privately and I’ll forward the news articles that covered it to you. Just dont share it publically, as my friends’ real names are on there and I’d like for their families to have their privacy.

Now on to the good news. I will be releasing the entire 4th book of TDE on this friday as it’s already been finished a month back and fully edited (I just didnt feel like releasing any chapters with the current atmosphere), and the ebook will be published the next monday.

Also, since my semester is coming to an end, I will be going full time into writing and increasing the weekly chapters to 4 starting from the 5th book 🙂 I might increase it to more as I get settled in to my new place and get some other matters finalized. I guess that’s that for now, I’ll see you guys tmr. I havent read all the comments or messages as there are quite a lot and I’ll get to reading them slowly. Thanks to all my readers for their continued support, you mean the world. On a side note, the TDE posters I got printed for the patrons came out amazing and I’m attaching a pic here. I might do an event later and ship 1-2 posters for free to the winners. I wish I could do more, but these are really expensive lol. Anyways, more details on that later.

I don’t think many people will ever be able to understand what you are going through, and I don’t, but I can wish you all the best, and hope you pull through this dark time. I hope you have a great Christmas and New Year, and that the next year may treat you and your loved ones better.

well i hope things get better for you soon,take care of yourself irl.
we probably can’t understand what it’s been like for you but i am sure i am not alone in hoping that things will get better for you.

Words cannot convey how much I feel for you man. I know I can’t understand what you’re going through but I honestly wish you the best over the holiday season and I hope from the bottom of my soul that 2018 will be an amazing year for you, your friends and both your and their families. Just look after yourself Daman. If you need to take breaks from time to time we’ll understand. I can’t wait to see where TDE is heading and I know you have a brilliant future ahead of you.

Condolences there is nothing much to say since all words on the internet may be interpreted incorrectly.
May this Christmas bring you joys that the entire year couldn’t and the new years be full of happiness for you.

I hope your friend will get better and be able to take in things slowly. There’s no other words i know that may provide morale comfort for you so i will just stop it here but really, never give up on your friend there.

Dude. Daman. Damn man, I really don’t know what to say. I know that what I say doesn’t mean as much to you since I’m not one of your Patrons, it really shouldn’t, but I just want to tell you that you do have a proper following here; one that will do what they can to support you. I’ve been following the story for a long time, back since before it was on Wuxia, so just know that I understand and accept why you’ve been delayed. Take the time you need man, for you.

I had a very similar year, won’t go into details (or anything on the matter), but it’s the easiest to go through if you just dive right in to a hobby.
I say that but I still haven’t gotten through my own.
I guess we can just hope for a better a year. This was harder to write than I thought 😂.
Can’t imagine how hard it was for you.
Let’s just hope.

I’m so sorry to hear about all of that, stay strong! But good job keeping your friend from doing something so irreversible. I have depression and know how hard living can be sometimes, but there’s never hope if you end it all. And that makes it very hard on all of your friends and family.

Hey there I’ve been a long time reader of TDE since you first started translating it just wanted to say that I for one feel your pain as I too lost 2 friends to a mass shooting in LA a couple months ago, my best friend past away and I couldn’t be there to say good bye and not being able to go and support everyone there crushed me. I’m so very sorry for your loss and I hope that you can continue to stand tall whilst keeping your head held high my friend.

It gets tough, it is sometimes just difficult waking up and going to work so I’ve always been very patient when people need time because of their lives! You just never know what’s happening so it’s best that people don’t jump to conclusions because of missing chapters ect. No one can predict what’s going to happen to others. So in saying that if you need more time just take it! Because I know how it’s like to lose people that were apart of your life and man, I still have moments where I can’t hold back my tears and just need space so don’t let us keep you from taking that time okay? Stay safe and I wish you and your friends the best of wishes much love ❤️

Damn. I’m afraid I’ve never experienced anything like this so I can’t express anything other than my sympathies but let me just say that Daman is my #1 favorite online writer and I hope you don’t let what’s happening to you take you down and prevent you from using your magical talent. I don’t really post much but I’ve followed you since the first book on gravity. I wish you a good 2018.

Been following this series since the beginning of the second book on gravity tales, and love TDE. Hope you continue writing, and we, the readers, all support you and I give you my deepest sympathies. On a lighter note, have a happy 2018!

This probably why I rather have no friends. except nothing to do with siblings etc. I rather believe I would have prefer to have been an only child. But no human is an island onto themselves. Everyday life hurdles happen he best is never to forget until one breathe the last breadth on life. Happy memories shall defy the heaven’s!!!

Just got my account on here for this. I lost a good friend my senior year of high school to a car wreck. It hurt, still does, and to be completely honest I hope it never stops, because the fact that it hurts means I still care. The only advice I can give you, is if you feel like crying for your friends, cry. If you feel like laughing with others about the good times you had, laugh away. Keep them in your heart always and you will feel better for it.

For your other friend, I don’t know what to say exactly. Keep encouraging them and hope that is enough.

Last of all, I hope each tomorrow you have is better than the one before it.

My condolences to you, your friends and your friends families. i can understand you a little that i had lost a brother in a car accident, and yes it’s hard and unbearable but the life goes on and we keep going forward with patient.

i wish that 2018 gonna be a happy year for you; and may God have mercy on your friends.

I am sorry to hear about everything that has happened and i definitely understand as my parents were both in the military and we moved around alot. A huge chunk of my life was over seas and i have been through a lot of things granted not all are as scary as what you have been through but some are rather close. i will pray for you to have peace and so much more. I hope everything gets better for you as the new year starts to come around this year.

Similar situation happened to me when i was in 4th year of university, but with my juniors, when they are rushing to the place of our farewell party. Joyous party become saddened for hundreds of people.
It makes us feel how much vulnerable and frail are we. But we have to stay strong and move on.
This is what makes this ‘site’ different from others, as it more feels like a community.

My condolences.
i understand your feelings as two of my friends died in car accident acouble months ago and another one from illness in june.
but you have to stay strong for your friends and family because life is fragile but precious .

I am deeply sorry for everything that happened to you and your friends… I won’t ask for any more details because I don’t want to cause you any more pain by having to constantly have a reminder of what happened.. Take all the time you need to heal

Any ETA on when chapters are going to be released here. By stating you’re back and a few other comments at the bottom of your post kind of gave the expression of you’re releasing some up to 240. But it looks like the mentioning of that has been edited out since I last read your comment.